Aquimed

Mediterranean coastal aquifers are increasing used, which often leads to quality and quantity water related problems. Climate change will exacerbate this growing tension over the resource, due to increases in crop water demands (leading to increased pumping) and possibly decreasing rainfall. This will produce decreasing water tables and saline water intrusion.  Moreover, in these regions, the high number of water users leads to specific challenges in terms of user participation in groundwater management.

In this context, new groundwater management practices have to be developed to prevent further degradation of groundwater resources and to support water users’ adaptation to increasing water scarcity.

The Aquimed project (2008-2010) aims at addressing this challenge through the development of methods to support stakeholders’ capacity to anticipate future changes in order to:

• enable water users to better adapt to increasing variability of the water resources;
• preserve groundwater resources;
• improve the integration of water resource challenges in regional development planning.

The three case studies are the Roussillon Plain in France, the Querença-Silves Region in Portugal, and the Coastal Chaouia Region in Morocco.